Thailand Trip November 2016
|
Wednesday 02/11/2016 Suvarnaphumi Airport and as our picture shows, a Rose sits between four thorns. Gillian Allison awaits with her four escorts, to board the Thai Smile flight that will transport her and her companions to Ubon Ratchathani. Ten people had originally shown interest in travelling this year but unfortunately due to health and family issues five couldn't make it. The five that travelled from Australia and the UK are, Dave and Gill Allison, Neville and Mark Wareham and John Hamnett. |
On arrival at Ubon we were met again by our good friends and mentors, Aek and Rose who'd bought along a new friend. We were each greeted with a rose by our new friend who's name is Kan. Parked outside the the airport was our transport for the next ten days. We were introduced to our driver who's name is Jek. Jek was given the English name Jack as a friendly gesture. We were soon on our way, travelling north along Highway 212 in a minibus. After a little over an hours travelling, we pulled up outside the entrance of the Big C in Amnat Charoen for a break. |
|
|
Forty minutes later and we were heading north again with a visit to the long since abandoned Phu Mu Radar site. We had driven past Crown airfield as a visit there was pencilled in for another day. For those of you who are unaware, Phu Mu was manned for ten years between 1964 and 1974 when the USA pulled out of the Vietnam war. There was a relationship between Crown and the Phu Mu base as John Knowles mentions in his story on the Medics page of this website. Neville Wareham can recall driving Capt Terry Hardy to Phu Mu on what must have been an Intel visit. |
Our first day had been so busy that we overan our time at Phu Mu. We were scheduled to take our evening meal at the Lake View restaurant in Nikhom Kham Soi. Instead we travelled on to a the Sabaidee restaurant on the outskirts of Mukdahan. As we ate our evening meal we were entertained by a troubadour singer guitarist who was quite good. After eating we were driven to The River City hotel which would be our base for the groups time in Mukdahan. We were in good humour and after checking in we all headed to the Pickin' Cowboy bar to spend some time sitting and relaxing with a few beers. |
|
|
Thursday 03/11/16 should have been a free day but Aek had other plans for us. A visit to the school to view the spectator stands was on the cards but before that we were transported to the Obajor's Office for a PR jolly. The Obajor and Balat were out on a community Dam project and after a few phone calls we were seated in a couple of local government pick-up trucks heading out into the countryside. We were driven over rough tracks to what seemed to be an old concrete Dam where older members of the village were working with local government officials. |
| The first picture above shows what was to become a strange compulsion? After presenting the Obajor and Balat with some expensive whisky, a gesture of our appreciation for their efforts and to cement our friendship, we were invited to help with the work on the Dam. As you can see one of us got stuck in with gusto and as the slideshow and other reporting will show, Neville could not resist working any sort of manual implement from this moment on. Too soon the little party was over and we were bumping our way back to the Obajor's office. |
|
| |
Our day off had already turned into something special as our Thai hosts pulled up beside a what seemed an unoccupied building. We vacated the vehicles and gathered together in a group wondering what would happen? As we milled around chatting, a chap wearing a big Sun hat appeared with a large bag of fruit. We were asked to taste the fruit and give our opinion? (See rollover image) As I've subsequently found we were eating Star fruit which has a sharp but pleasant taste. We carried on back to the Obajor Office for a refreshing and cooling drink.
|
| It was back to the Minibus for the short trip to the Khok Samlan school. We were visiting with a two-fold agenda. One was for members of OCA could witness first hand the size and quality of the spectator stands funded by OCA. The second and an uncertain meeting was to deliver a gift to the Grandaughter of Bill Watch's Boot boy. Bill had recognised his Boot boy twelve months previously at the 2015 50th Airfield Celebration and they'd done some catching up. The young lady in the picture had accompanied her Grandad and made a big impression on Bill hence the delivery of the gift by Neville. |
|
|
|
We left the school and headed up Highway 212. At Loeng Nok Tha we turned left to Old Gow and the start of the Post Crown road. We were going to Nong Phoc Police Station presumably to do a little sight seeing? We alighted at The Police Station which is where the Post Crown road and the road from Roi Et joined up. It is also where the Opening Ceremony took place in May of 1968. Aek proceeded to speak to the Duty policeman. Although he spoke in Thai he was gesturing towards us presumably explaining our connection with the sign outside the Police Station? |
| As it turned out we were being used as pawns in a Thai game of political chess. Aek managed to gain a meeting with the Nong Phoc Police Chief and we were ushered into his office where Aek explained our hopes of a 50th Celebration, he needed the Chief on side if we're are to achieve the event we're hoping for. I think he managed to do it as the Chief spent some time chatting to us in a very friendly way. We said our goodbye's and made our way downstairs to leave the Police Station grounds. |
|
|
|
We headed back east the way we had come but instead of returning to LNT we turned off the 2136 to take a road to Nikhom Kham Soi. We drove to a reservoir, Huai Khee Lek and the Lake View restaurant. We had a late lunch of Thai food consisting of the usual chicken, pork and fish. Our Thai host's ate the more spicy and chili dishes but our's was not so heat laden. We enjoyed some down time including taking in the panorama's of the lake. Our activities were not finished as we drove towards Mukdahan and Phu Manorom. |
| Phu Manorom is a high hill to the south of Mukdahan a mile or so west of the Mekong. Still under construction, a giant Buddha statue can be seen for miles around. Located beneath it are Wat Roi Phra Putthabat temple and a panoramic viewing area. This place is a popular spot for locals to spend some family and leisure time. The views over Mukdahan and Savannakhet are pretty spectacular in an area where most of the high ground is difficult to access. We fooled around with the 3D images drawn on the ground before climbing six hundred steps inside the Buddha to reach the top. |
|
The slideshow will generate many more images taken on the day. We ended the day by again relaxing in the Pickin' Cowboy before retiring to the River City. Day three would start our five day road trip to Udon Thani a city some two hundred and seventy nine miles to the west of Mukdahan. Our route would take us via the city of Sakon Nakhon and then we would proceed north and west following the mighty Mekong. |
Slideshow
A slideshow of pictures below of our first two days are shown in chronological order. Place your cursor into the picture window to freeze the motion, remove it allow the slideshow to restart. Depending on your connection, it may take a while for the pictures to download and the slideshow to start |
|
|
